European Entrepreneurship Education Award
The European Entrepreneurship Award (EEEA) is presented annually by the Sten K. Johnson Centre for Entrepreneurship. The award recognizes an individual or an organisation that has contributed to the improvement of entrepreneurship education in academia in Europe. The award is comprised of the honor and a diploma, as well as a sum of 100 000 SEK.
Award winners 2023 - Marco van Gelderen, VU University Amsterdam

This year the award goes to Associate Professor Marco van Gelderen at VU University Amsterdam.
The award committee’s citation
Associate Professor Marco van Gelderen at VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands has been a key scholar within the entrepreneurship education community when it comes to the teaching and learning of enterprising competencies. As a psychologist, Van Gelderen interest lies in how individuals become more effective in their daily life through enterprising behaviours. Van Gelderen has also played a crucial role in developing novel and innovative experiential teaching formats to train enterprising competencies by integrating an autonomy-based approach as a guideline for entrepreneurship education. As a result, his teaching formats have been successfully disseminated not only on his website, but also in various courses and educational levels across different European universities. In addition, van Gelderen is a well-published scholar within entrepreneurship education, competencies and pedagogy. He is an active member in both 3E (ECSB Entrepreneurship Education) and USASBE conferences and an editor of the learning innovation section of the Entrepreneurship Education & Pedagogy Journal. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice. His innovative ideas on fostering enterprising behaviour have positively influenced entrepreneurship education across Europe. Overall, he is a worthy recipient of the European Education Award.
About the award
Purpose of the award
- Highlight the importance of teaching and learning in the area of entrepreneurship in Europe,
- Further stimulate and promote innovative teaching methods within the field,
- Diffuse the state of the art in entrepreneurial education among scholars, policymakers’ practitioners, and people involved in entrepreneurship education at the university level.
Who is a potential award winner?
The award winner of the EEEA could be a person or an organisation active in Europe. To be considered a nominee for the EEEA the nominee has to have contributed significantly by developing pedagogic perspectives or ways of teaching entrepreneurship, through education, research or outreach activities.
Criteria for evaluation of nominations include: (1) novelty and innovativeness; (2) potential impact and transferability; and (3) relevance for a public beyond academia.
Nominations
Nominate Here (Deadline 1st September, 2023)
Award Committee
Diamanto Politis, Professor, Sten K. Johnson Centre for Entrepreneurship
Mats Westerberg, Professor, Luleå University of Technology
Helle Neergaard, Professor, Aarhus University
Roger Sørheim, Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology - NTNU
Ulla Hytti, Professor, University of Turku